© 1978 Virginia Varnum
© 1978 The Urantia Book Fellowship (formerly Urantia Brotherhood)
God-wardness is a kind of goodness: “the pursuit of the ideal.” It uses different muscles, it thrives on love. “Until you attain Paradise levels, goodness will always be more of a quest than a possession…” (UB 132:2.8) God-wardness is a “thirst for divine perfection” (UB 150:5.5) accomplished with God’s own help together with the whole hierarchy of spirit beings and the God-expression from within you.
God-wardness is the total, forever, onward, growth with room for you and for me. An all-together growth finding God’s purposes small and large, acting on them with trust, and thirsting for God. My purposes may seem to conflict with others sometimes, but we come with certainty, clarity of purpose, love for God as the over-ride and grace the result.
“Graciousness is the aroma of friendliness which emanates from a love-saturated soul. Goodness always compels respect, but when it is devoid of grace, it often repels affection. Goodness is universally attractive only when it is gracious. Goodness is effective only when it is attractive.” (UB 171:7.1-2)
“But even as you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you experience increasing satisfaction in the partial attainment of goodness.” (UB 132:2.8) This partial attainment of goodness gives a delightfully joyous lift. Watch the ripples widening as a well-taken choice affects first one person then another, then many with a touch of benefit and subtle change.
With this change of direction, are my decisions more easily taken? Some are so easy now that they don’t even feel like decisions. Then there are others where once I would have drifted; perhaps now I have a keener recognition of a decision situation now, one of importance to religious growth. Prayer and the relaxed awareness of meditation help the decision making process, Sometimes I have a poignant moment of self-pity “if only this … if only that”-but that’s unreal and passes with the first implementation of the new choice.
The action for God, once taken, becomes a new source of gladnes5, and the joyous ripples begin again.
“The discernment of the divine goodness in the eternal truth, that is ultimate beauty.” (UB 2:7.8)
Virginia Varnum
Staten Island, New York